Friday, February 26, 2010

As part of the Work shop I took with J. Kirk Richards we went to see his divine exhibit at the Carriage House in Provo. (I think it is about 1st East and almost 6th South) He has all these new sculptures of angels, and then some large peices of the nativy. But My favorite in the exhibit, I cannot describe to you, for fear of ruining the pure rapture of seeing it unprepared-- an experience I cannot encourage strongly enough. I will say it was 12 feet tall and soooo simple. Wow. Hope you go.

Meanwhile at the workshop he did one of these choir scenes, (It was a commision for a portrait of somebody's children.) He showed how he put gold leaf on in his paintings then glazes over it slightly, then repaints the lights to push them back up. Well true confession it's not all that easy Because I tried it out,and put on way to much glaze and have to go take his class to learn to do it right. Ah, genious. At least you can pay to be around it.

Among others,I have one especially dear friend with mental illness. Last year our relationship became tumultuos due to a particularly intense manic. When it got to the point where talking made things worse and I found myself bursting into tears infront of strangers, It occured to me that this was a perfect time for a painting trip. Knowing that BYU studies was looking for a painting of the Mountain Meadows Massacre site, I used that as an excuse to throw aside all responsabilities and head south to scout out a pianting site there.

Along the way I read Ron Walkers fascinating book, Massacre at Mountains Meadows.

The dust jacket begins "On September 11, 1857, a band of Mormon militia, under a flag of truce, lured unarmed members of a party of emigrants from their fortified encampment and, with their Paiute allies, killed them. More than 120 men, women, and children perished in the slaughter."

Being a person of Faith, often requires something the Psychologist Jeffery Schwarts called "directed attention" , a method used to overcome Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It is a technique used to look past a "cognition" that can become disabling, in order to focus on the whole context of cognitions that work together as part of a succesfully functioning life.

I took tons of pictures there; It was a truely beautiful place. Ironically, I ended up with several other paintings, but never quite got to sit down and finish the one on Mountain Meadow, which is, I suppose a note to self: Just to round off the collection, I ought to do a quick one of the musago? creek.These are a couple of my watercolor landscapes from the last year or so. The Cabin is of course, The Summerhays Cabin at the mouth of Smith Moorhouse Canyon